Financial Declaration

Purpose of the Financial Declaration

If you receive an offer of a place, your college (or, for some courses, your department) will require you to complete a Financial Declaration form in order to meet your financial condition of admission. This aims to ensure that you are fully aware of the expected fees and living costs associated with your chosen course of study at Oxford. It is your opportunity to consider very carefully the financial commitment you are entering into and to take full responsibility for it. If you cannot pay your fees and living costs, you will not normally be able to continue your studies.

When you complete your Financial Declaration, you will be asked to:

• Show that you have sufficient funding to cover the course fees for Year 1 of your course by providing financial evidence;
• Confirm that you understand that it is your responsibility to ensure that your course fees are met beyond Year 1 and that you have taken into account your personal circumstances and likely contingencies, if the duration of your course is longer than one year (no financial evidence of this is required); and
• Confirm that you understand that it is your responsibility to ensure that your living costs are met for the duration of your course and that you have taken into account your personal circumstances and likely contingencies (no financial evidence of this is required).

Points you must consider in your financial planning

University and college scholarships

University and college scholarships are almost always awarded during the application process before you join the University. It is vital that you do not rely on being able to obtain such scholarship funding once you start your course.

Paid work 

The University recognises that some graduate students will want to undertake a limited amount of paid work during their studies, whether as part of their academic development (eg teaching and demonstrating) or to help to support themselves financially. The University has Paid work guidelines which you must read. The guidelines aim to ensure that any paid work undertaken does not adversely affect your success in your studies or your ability to complete your course on time. In addition, some graduates will have prescribed limits on how many hours of paid work they can undertake, for example, graduates funded by research councils and some other scholarships, and those graduates with student visas. Individual colleges may also have guidelines. You should be aware that demand for part-time, paid work in Oxford often exceeds the amount of paid work available, whether or not it is of an academic nature. Therefore, when planning how to finance your studies and when completing your Financial Declaration, you should not rely on the availability of paid work to fund your fees and living costs.

Specific course-related costs and other additional costs

The living costs set out on the Financial Declaration form do not include specific costs which may be related to some courses of study, such as field trips and consumables. You should consult the individual course pages, to see whether any such costs are likely to apply to you. You will need to cover any course-related costs in addition to the living cost amounts set out on the Financial Declaration form. You may incur other additional costs if you need a student visa or to travel internationally between your home and Oxford.

Annual inflationary increases to fees and likely living costs

On your Financial Declaration form, course fees and living costs for future years are calculated using the most recently available rates and include an estimated inflationary increase year-on-year. Increases to both fees and living costs should be expected annually. For details, please see our guidance on likely increases to fees and charges.

Exchange rates

If your source(s) of financial support are not in GB pounds (£), your financial planning should allow for variations in the currency exchange rate.

Dependants

The living costs set out on the Financial Declaration form are for a single person on a full-time course; you will need to plan carefully how you will fund any dependants whom you plan to bring to Oxford with you. Please review the Living costs for dependants information for advice on the likely costs which might be incurred by any of your dependants (eg a partner or child), who are also living in Oxford. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have enough funds to meet the living costs of your whole family. In particular, please note that childcare costs can be high.

University student contract

If your application is successful, you will be sent an offer letter from the department. When you accept this offer you will enter into your contract with the University. The offer letter will be accompanied by the University’s Terms and Conditions and a Course Information Sheet and will contain a link to the Student Handbook. You should read these documents carefully before you accept your offer as they will set out the content of the contract you will be entering into with the University.

A copy of the University Terms and Conditions is available for reference only on the Your offer and contact page.

When you accept your offer and enter into  your contract with the University, you will be entering into a legal obligation to pay the fees and charges due from you to the University. A failure to pay fees when due may lead to your access to University premises and facilities being suspended.

Your offer letter will state that you are entitled to cancel your acceptance of a place at the University for any reason within a period of fourteen days beginning on the day after the day on which the department receives notification of your acceptance of the offer.

College student contract

You may also need to sign a student contract with your college once you have fulfilled the conditions of your offer of study. You will be advised whether or not this is the case. The college student contract includes the legal obligation to pay the fees and charges due from you to your college. A failure to pay fees and charges when due may lead to the imposition of disciplinary measures by your college, which may include suspension or expulsion, and you may be excluded from college premises and domestic services.

Information about fees and living costs

Information about fees and living costs for graduate applicants is provided on the individual graduate course pages, accessible via the Courses page. The Fees and funding pages provide information and advice about fees and funding at Oxford and explain what course fees cover. The Living costs page also gives likely living costs for graduate study for single, full-time students who are based in Oxford (using a minimum-maximum range, to account for differing lifestyle choices), explains what living costs you will need to budget for and helps you to consider other costs (eg the cost of dependants and set-up costs) that you may incur. This information is provided to ensure that you are fully aware of the expected fees and likely living costs associated with your chosen course of study at Oxford.  It is your opportunity to consider very carefully the financial commitment you are entering into and to take full responsibility for it. 

The standard period for which you will be liable to pay course fees is usually the same as the standard length of your course. If you complete the standard period of course fee liability and remain on course beyond this period, the University will levy a continuation charge. Further information is available on the Fee liability and Continuation charge pages. Your college may also levy a continuation charge, which will be detailed on your initial offer letter from the college and on the Continuation charge page.

Submitting the Financial Declaration

Your college (or, for some courses, your department) will ask you to complete a Financial Declaration form once you have been offered a place. The Financial Declaration will normally be required to be submitted between 30th June and 31st July. You should return the form to the point of contact listed on the form. This is a necessary step in order for your University contract to be issued to you.

If you require a visa to study at Oxford, you can only apply once you have met all the conditions in your University and college offer letters, and once your offer to study becomes unconditional. Submitting the Financial Declaration form is an important part of the process of meeting your financial conditions for both your College and University offers (as the University condition is met once the College or Department is satisfied). Please note that the evidence you will need to supply for your visa application may be different from the financial information that you use to complete the Financial Declaration form. More information about applying for your visa is available on the Visa and immigration page.

Supporting documentation for your Year 1 course fees

You need to submit copies of documentation detailing any scholarships, loans, savings or other funding which you will use to meet your course fees in Year 1 only of your course. If your funding for your course fees for Year 1 is coming from multiple sources, you must provide relevant evidence for each source.

All supporting documentation should be provided in written English; where an original is not available in English, both the foreign language document and a translated copy are required.

Please convert all non-UK currency into GB pounds (£).

Scholarship or award

An official communication is required from the award sponsor, confirming the specific amount of funding that will be provided towards your Year 1 fees.

Funding from family, private sponsors and self-funding

If a grant or loan is expected from parents or other persons, you should include a letter from them, accepting responsibility for meeting your Year 1 fee costs and confirming the specific amount and duration of the funding being provided.

This letter should be accompanied by supporting evidence from an employer or professional adviser, such as an accountant or lawyer, showing that sufficient funds are available and vouching for the ability and willingness to pay of the funder. In exceptional circumstances where a statement from a professional adviser cannot be obtained, copies of bank statements showing a consistent level of available funding may be accepted, at the discretion of the body issuing the Financial Declaration.

If you are self-financing, you should arrange for similar statements and evidence to be sent. Employment contracts relating to your period of study must be in accordance with the University's Paid work guidelines.

Guaranteed income or pension (if this source meets the University's Paid work guidelines) 

You should include a letter from your employer confirming both the length of your contract and that you will receive a regular salary payment that is at a sufficient level to support your Year 1 fees (a pay slip alone may not be acceptable). For pension funds, you should include a letter from your pensions provider, or provider of similar support, stating both the amount and timing of the payments which will cover your Year 1 fees.

University employee support

You should provide a letter from your Head of Department confirming the level of support provided by your department towards your Year 1 fees. If the employment contract is shorter than the anticipated length of Year 1 of the course, the letter must confirm that the department will cover fees at the stipulated level if the contract is not renewed. If department funding does not cover the whole of your Year 1 fees, other funding must be shown to be available in order to cover any shortfall.

Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering

In accordance with the University’s legal obligations, checks will be carried out during the offer stage to verify that your source of funding is compliant with UK and international legislation on sanctions (as detailed at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-sanctions) and may be carried out to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering legislation. For this to occur, information included in your Financial Declaration Form which relates to your source of funding may be shared by the Department or College considering your Financial Declaration with the University’s Central Finance Division. If the University and/or your College are not satisfied that your source of funding is compliant by the deadline set in your offer letter (or other deadline communicated to you) then your offers will, in most cases, have to be withdrawn on the grounds that you have not satisfied the University's and College's financial conditions.

Fees after Year 1 and living costs

You need to plan how you will fund the cost of fees for any years beyond Year 1 of your course, and your living costs, but you do not need to provide supporting documentation to show how you will meet these.

Continuing Oxford students

If you are a current Oxford student who has been accepted onto a new course of study, you will be asked to complete a new Financial Declaration form and will not be covered automatically by any previous form.

A note on any separate financial checks for college accommodation

The Financial Declaration form is an integral part of the graduate admissions process. Colleges may separately undertake rent assurance processes (eg credit control, deposits, payment of rent upfront, tenancy agreements) for students who apply for college accommodation and colleges may require you to provide evidence of your ability to pay for your college accommodation (if applicable). Rent assurances are undertaken outside of the Financial Declaration process and are unrelated to the process of satisfying the conditions of an offer of admission.